Before Children's Books, Dr. Seuss Championed Bug Spray

The commercial art of Theodor Seuss Geisel made people comfortable with poisons.

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The follies of youth… sometimes more dangerous than we'd like to admit. In the case of the famous children's book author Dr. Seuss, mistakes from young adulthood proved instrumental in the positive messages we remember from him. In the early stages of his career, Seuss worked for Standard Oil, a firm that produced Flit bug spray. Seuss' humorous comics for the company focused little on the negative potential of pesticides, instead making daily use common and the source of amusing punch lines. It is quite possible that a fit of conscious after these drawings provoked the man to create the work we all adore today. [Mother Jones]

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